Experts still not sure over ayurveda drugs for diabetes

Ayurveda Drugs are not sure for Diabetes

Mission Madhumeha through Ayurveda to be launched on Friday

While the Department of Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) is launching a “Mission Madhumeha through Ayurveda” on Friday, modern medicine doctors have continued to be at loggerheads over the efficacy of the alternative system of medicine for the treatment of diabetes.

A heated debate over this issue has been continuing in the recent editions of ‘The Lancet’ via posts giving alternative therapies a thumbs down. Unabated doubts have been raised by diabetes experts over Ayurvedic drugs have also moved the AYUSH ministry to get a concrete proof to their claims.

“In a bid to counter this allegation that Ayurvedic is inefficacious, we have further looped in scientific institutes such as Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). They are researching to establish efficacy of Ayurvedic drugs not only for diabetes, but for other diseases also,” Anil Kumar Ganeriwala, Joint Secretary, AYUSH Ministry told DNA.

Opinions over this issue in “The Lancet”

Since March, there has been a brisk exchange of the opinions over this issue in “The Lancet” with a latest correspondence on Wednesday. The first post has been titled ‘Maximum Hype, Minimum Science’ which has been published in the Medical Journal in March 2016, by a noted endocrinologist Dr Anoop Misra, who had claimed there is insufficient scientific evidence to recommend Ayurvedic drugs in routine clinical practice.

In reply to the post, Ayurvedic experts Zankhana Buch and Rajiv Vasudevan have stated, “Regarding the scarcity of the studies of Ayurvedic treatments which was mentioned by Misra and his colleagues, it is important to further keep in mind that the classic Ayurvedic medicines are usually polyherbal formulations. The combined effect of the phytochemical constituents of various herbs is also responsible for therapeutic efficacy, rather than the actions of a single active ingredient.

Experts still raise doubts over ayurvedic drugs for diabetes

In response to the argument through another post on Lancet, Dr Misra, chairman of the Fortis-CDOC Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology, said, “Finally, we have agreed with the authors that we have an incomplete understanding of Ayurveda, which is just simply because of the paucity of clear, scientific data, and also due to poorly done studies that are often not based on modern principles of drug trials.”

Dr Misra argued that Diabetes treatment in Ayurveda is based on ancient treatises written by individuals thousands of years ago, or on principles of modern science, is the central issue. These are simple principles of drug development worldwide and should also be applied to Ayurvedic treatments.

The Ministry of AYUSH on Friday is launching the “Mission Madhumeha through Ayurveda” on the National Ayurveda Day. The mission will be further implemented throughout the country through a specially designed National Treatment Protocol for Effective Management of Diabetes Through Ayurveda. The national Treatment Protocol will be released on the occasion. Central Council for Research in the Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under Ministry of AYUSH has recently also prepared Ayush-82, an Ayurvedic formulation for the prevention and management of Diabetes and is all set to commercialise it soon.

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